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I'm going through this same thing soon, replacing an Ibanz IRT-1 with a Gotoh. The studs are much larger, and I have no drill press or tools to replace the bushings. (the Gotoh are considerable larger). Would I be okay just using the new trem unit with the original bushings/studs already in the guitar?

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Originally Posted by RaVenCAD

I'll be the first to admit that I can say some pretty stupid stuff.. Some a-hole is gonna sig that, but I don't care..

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Look, none of us can give the absolute best answer because we don't have the guitar in front of us. This is a repair. Any repair of a guitar is gonna be different than anything else ever done. Similarities, yes, but that's as far as it goes. If you have to dowel plug it, put the plug in with a good wood glue and drill the hole one size small for an interference fit. If you just have to open up the hole for the the new anchor, drill the hole one size small (1/64") and drive that puppy home. Also make sure the hole you drill is proper depth. Do that by holding the drill bit next to the anchor. Line up the part of the drill just above the pointed part with the bottom of the anchor. Use a piece of tape to mark the drill. This is one case where just a touch deeper is best.

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I've enlarged the holes from a Floyd bushing for a Gotoh bushing before. Used a hand drill and everything (it's pretty hard to mess up and go sideways when you're only slightly enlarging a pre-existing hole).

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Neither does wood. The rebound effect of compressed wood holds the anchor in place -- provided that the clear hole for the anchor was drilled to proper specification in the first place.

If the hole is a tiny bit too large, you can successfully use wood glue to fill in the gap. Personally, I'd use Titebond III for this as it has the lowest shrinkage of all wood glues.

If the anchor hole in the guitar has become egged-out, you can fill in the missing wood with epoxy and re-mill the anchor hole to specification after the epoxy has cured.

Whatever. I don't care. Use glue. You could just do it properly, but instead, get a speed-bore bit the size of your head and just use Titebond 12 to fill in the gap.

Threads like this are why I stopped taking my guitar to "techs". If I showed up and buddy had drilled the holes for the bushings too large I'd shush him there, grab my guitar, and leave.

The very first time I did this very job was while stoned with nothing but an old lawn chair to rest the guitar on and a Makita hammer drill. It's just enlarging two holes slightly, it doesn't require a physics degree or glue.